Where to find rats for breeding???

where could I find rat breeders in washington? I want to start breeding my own rats for our snakes and eventually selling them as well. I know we need rats that have a good history and a healthy line, but don't know where I can find them. Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Libitina

where could I find rat breeders in washington? I want to start breeding my own rats for our snakes and eventually selling them as well. I know we need rats that have a good history and a healthy line, but don't know where I can find them. Thanks!

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Check to see if there are any reptile shows around you. There will likely be rat breeders at the shows.

My first two female breeders actually came from Petsmart. Stick with the black/white hoodeds and the cream hoodeds. No blazes, no blues (every blue I tried to get from them was sickly).

I got my male at Petland from their feeder bins. I asked if I could pick one and they let me in the back. When I explained I was breeding for feeders, they didn't try to sell me a pet one.

Look for clear, bright eyes, no sniffling/snuffling, good body weight.

I got my girls first and let them grow up to 250 grams, then got the male later. Started meeting others that I could exchange babies with for more blood lines. Hold back some select females if your founding stock has nice sized litters.

This may not be recommended but what I did was go to two pet stores and pick out a healthy male and healthy female. This pretty much guarantees that they aren't related. I also got weaned rats so I could handle them as they were growing so I wouldn't have mean adult rats. It takes a while to get the colony going but it seems to work pretty well.

I also started my colony by buying 2 females and one male from a local pet store. My colony is now close to 100 breeding femals strong.

So did I, 2 females from Petco. Big, healthy girls, and a male from a local mom and pop store. The male was sickly and every other rat I got from them was not the best animal. I've since then held back enough and worked away from crappy rats to get a good breeding colony.

It takes time, but is not impossible.

I got my oldest female off CL, one male from a petco in one city, and my last 2 females from 2 more petstores. I bought from multiple stores to try and get different blood lines. I did the same thing for my mice, 3 different pet stores, 3 different breeding groups (I swapped the males with different groups)

I got mine from the local pet store too. My colonies are over 3 years old and I just recently introduced some new blood (after a 90 day QT) which I got from fellow BP.Net friends. Just to mix it up a little because I'm sure after 3 years everyone was related in some way.

I know for a fact that the fancy rats this particular pet store sold were from the same guy they bought their feeder rats from. I think they just picked out a few pretty rats and sold them as pets. This feeder breeder supplies all the pet stores and reptile stores in my area.

I would have no problem just buying some feeder babies and raising them up to start. You have to figure that the feeder breeder must have some healthy stock to supply all the pet stores. Just my opinion.

Good luck!

I got my rats from a local pet store, where the woman breeds most of her own fancies. though my original male has since been retired, he was nasty.